Two British soap stars have today been blasted for joking about the violent attack Rihanna received at the hands of Chris Brown in 2009.

Ashley Taylor Dawson, who plays Darren Osborne in Hollyoaks, tweeted, “I hear Rihanna is back with Chris Brown... well if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em!!,” following rumours that the pair are now back together.

Ryan Thomas, who plays Jason Grimshaw in Coronation Street, then retweeted the message to his 167,000 followers, prompting a response from Women’s Aid spokesperson Teresa Parker:

“Jokes like this one trivialise a very serious issue.

“We have worked with Hollyoaks and Coronation Street to help develop domestic violence storylines and we hope they explain to the actors involved why domestic violence just isn’t funny.”

A Hollyoaks spokeswoman then said, “This is not the sort of comment we would ever sanction. We will be talking to the actor,” whilst an ITV spokeswoman added, “We will look into the situation on Monday.”